It’s getting closer and closer to the holiday season and whilst it might seem parties and presents are trumping office overtime, the tech world never rests. As companies gear up for the biggest shopping month of the year, neither does online marketing. We start your week with two minutes of the latest.

Adobe Bids Farewell to Flash

Well, maybe not quite farewell... Adobe is rebranding the much beleaguered Flash software to bring more emphasis to its other capabilities such as working in HTML5. The software will now be released as Adobe Animate, still part of the Creative Suite. It will continue to support Flash, it will also allow users to create with a host of other platforms.

Uber with Colour

Ever had trouble finding an Uber on a busy street? Let alone finding your Uber car and not somebody else’s. If you’ve ever lived through the embarrassment of having opened a stranger’s car door, you’ll appreciate Uber’s new experiment in Seattle. With new tech called spot, riders can now choose to illuminate their Uber car windshield with a colour picked on their phone. The windshield glows, once the car is close to the pick up location.

Going Open Source

Google made headlines a few weeks ago when it open sourced the machine learning programming that was behind Google Photos, but it’s not the only company seeing the value in sharing. Apple and Microsoft are both playing the game. Apple made good this week on a promise to make 'Swift' open source before year end, and Microsoft has just announced that it will be open sourcing Chakra, the main Javascript components behind its new Edge browser. Swift is now available on GitHub and Chakra is expected to join the site next month.

Facebook Live Video

Facebook is rolling out live video to some users in the United States. The feature which has been active with celebrity accounts for some months is finally making it to everyday users. Taking on the likes of Periscope and even FaceTime the new tool allows video broadcasting to friends, family and even the general public. The video is added to your timeline to be kept or deleted like any other post or update.